Refresh Your Desk With These ‘Back to School’ Office Supplies

BACK TO SCHOOL, back to school, to prove to dad that I’m not a fool. Love the movie Billy Madison.

ANYWAYS— It’s ‘back to school’ time, but it can also mean ‘reorganizing your office desk’ time.

If you’re a business owner or blogger or just want to pimp out your space, these are 5 must haves that are very TSC & will elevate your work area. In my opinion, having a nice work area makes you way more efficient, effective & happy.

I’ve tested all of these things 800 million times & I know you guys will absolutely love them. We’ll get as specific as possible, as always. In this post you’ll discover your absolute favorite pen, a cute set that will NOT remind you of your 5th grade teacher’s desk, & a couple things that help with posture & eye health.

♡ Pink Desk Set

This pale pink set is everything. It’s so cute & if you want to post an Instagram it will match perfectly with your millennial pink feed. This set includes a pencil cup, stapler, tape dispenser & business card holder. These are things that are on my desk & the whole TSC team uses them too. All of these are matching & not some gross, chunky grey thing from your middle school classroom. Remember???

Personally, I like to keep everything very cohesive on my desk, so matching is ideal. All my pencils in the holder are white, otherwise you’ll find my favorite pens in there ( see below ). Sometimes my tape has hearts on it & my staples are rose gold, I must admit. Throw on some Bossa nova & be prepared to feel totally zenned out while you’re working with this monochromatic desk set up.

♡ The Best Pen in the World

There’s really nothing better than a perfect pen. I’ve searched high & low for the ideal pen to write in my planner with. I’m so specific when it comes to this. I want the pen to be delicate, smooth & thin while also being bold. I don’t ask for much.

A pen that catches is no good. It needs to be fluid & really glide.

And don’t think for one second that the pen can be ugly. It needs to be super cute.

Montblanc pens are so expensive, so I was on the hunt to find an affordable, chic pen that I’d want to use all the time.

And let’s be honest, no one is doing a lot of penmanship or cursive anymore. We’re not in 2^nd grade trying to stay on the dotted lines. All of us are texting so it’s important to have a pen that works with your hand. I know it sounds crazy, but it really is important.

So after trying a million pens, I found the one, the only, the amazing, white, very TSC-ish pen.

The funny thing is, after raving about this pen to all my friends, I found out that this is the most popular pen in Japan. This doesn’t surprise me at all because I feel like Japanese people have the most amazing penmanship. It’s precise, delicate & pristine. I think it’s because they have specific classes for handwriting in school? Even Japanese art is perfect & meticulous.

I haven’t been to Japan, I was just in the airport- but even then, I noticed what great care they take in details. They’re also big on something called Bullet Journals. It’s essentially having a little notebook on you all the time to plan your days & draw some doodles. It’s all about taking time out to get back to just pen & paper. So it’s no surprise this pen is #1 in Japan.

I have to say, the other day I was writing with my pink pen from The Beverly Hills Hotel ( which I also love ), but it’s a totally different situation & my writing is so much better with this white pen.

I have a pack of 12. They come in different colors too. And I have them all over my house.

SOME OF THE REVIEWS ARE:

+ Best writing pen I have ever owned…

+ Gliding, smear-free pen…

+ I’d rate these 10 stars if I could…

+ My absolute favorite for writing…

You should also know they all come in black ink. Fine by me!

You guys know I live & die by my Google calendar, but I also like to have a real planner that I can write in. I wrote a whole post on the planner I use & how I use it. The planner has to have a weekly view, & a spiral spine so I can lay it flat- but more on that here.

This pen is also PERFECT for Morning Pages.

I’m adding this pen to the master list & TSC Amazon Store right now so that it’s easy for everyone to find.

Anyway. This pen is major, you don’t want to live without it. Like, it’s not worth living if you don’t have it- ( love a dramatic moment ).

♡ Bando Planner

There’s just something about a new planner. Like doesn’t it remind you of 8th grade? All ready for the fresh new school year. You had just shopped the BACK TO SCHOOL SALE at Staples & you were super proud because you scored the last hot pink, SPIRAL BOUND 2001-ish planner. Maybe you even carried it in your boring, black JanSport ( it didn’t matter that it was boring though because you had one of those pens that can write on backpack material….& if you were anything like me you had all your friends sign your backpack just to keep the backpack FESTIVE!). The point was your planner was PERFECT & FRESH, ready to showcase homework assignments, school dance dates, & Stussy doodles. AHHHH I LOVED A NEW PLANNER.

ANYWAY, THERE REALLY IS SOMETHING SO NICE ABOUT PLANNERS. They’re calming- almost therapeutic.

( If you don’t believe me, just Google “bullet proof journal” & see what pops up- like millions of people find planners just as therapeutic as me. I am not alone here ).

And even though now I thoroughly utilize Slack, Trello, Google Calendar ( OMG WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT A COLOR-CODED GOOGLE CALENDAR ), & email- I still love an old school planner.

I want to explain how I use it but before we get into it, you need to know which one I use. First off, when I pick a planner each year, I’m specific. I HAVE to have one with spiral edges. Reason being: I don’t like when the planner can’t lay open. I want it open-faced on my desk half of the time. A spiral situation allows me to have it out & open without closing on its own. We don’t want to have to hold it open while writing…that would be inefficient.

Then, it needs to be fairly BIG. But seriously, we can’t have some limp dick planner that’s too small. My favorite pen ( << which is random but don’t fuck with it- it’s my favorite pen ever. THE WAY IT WRITES, JUST TRUST ME GUYS ) needs to be able to really flow on the blank pages. I don’t want to have to write all tiny.

THEN it needs to have a weekly view, not monthly. No, no, no- I want to see a week at a time. A month is just way too overwhelming for me.

SO! The one I am using right now is pictured in Holographic SILVER. It kind of reminds me of that one book The Rainbow Fish where the scales are all silvery & sparkly on each page. Ya, it’s like that but one big silver cover. Annoying enough, it’s sold out. But they have lots of different cute options for the end of 2019 & all of 2020. Scope them all out here. This brand is the best for a planner in my opinion- they meet my high maintenance list of demands.

How I use it? Easy- BUT it’s not to plan my day. Oh no. My day is planned in Google Calendar– it’s color-coded, to the point, with invites, & very much planned from the second I wake up to the second I go to bed. Alarms are set in my phone for conference calls & days are batched ( if you haven’t read this post on time batching, please do! It will help make your life easier ). MY OLD FASHION PLANNER is more for notes. So while I’m at my desk returning emails, Slack messages, or Trello lists- I can make notes on whatever day it is. Usually I don’t give myself more than 7 PRIORITY tasks a day ( details on that here ).

For instance, I’m at my desk on a Thursday at 11:30 AM returning e-mails. As I’m returning these emails, I realize I need to design something for The Skinny Confidential. I’ll write in my planner ( on Thursday because we’re pretending it’s a Thursday ): send Brooke design for __________. Then I’ll keep emailing & realize I need to get on a call with my accountant so I’ll go back to my planner & in the Thursday box write: TAKE CALL WITH ACCOUNTANT ABOUT ________. SO I guess it’s kind of like my to-do list for the day. If the day’s tasks become more than 7, I’ll bring some tasks to the next day ( regardless the tasks need to be moving the business along- nothing pointless ).

Then when I sit down at my desk the next day, I’ll have a few tasks waiting for me because some spilled over from the day before. So: I still use a planner. I still feel like an 8th grader at the BACK TO SCHOOL SALE when I pick it out each year. And I still wish I had an autographed JanSport. SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE.

♡ Laptop Stand

I LOVE MY FUCKING LAPTOP STAND.

LIKE LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.

In fact, I don’t like using a laptop if I don’t have one to support it. & if I’m in bed ( sorry Michael ), I’ll use a bed tray so technically I’m still adhering to the whole stand thing ( tip from a bed laptop pro: use two pillows underneath the laptop if you don’t have a tray, this also keeps radiation from the computer off your legs! ).

Ok so, as I’ve said before, I have a bad neck. Perhaps it’s from years of looking down at the computer or the whiplash accident I was involved in at nineteen years old. But who knows? Anyway, it’s BAD.

So the worst thing I can do is work ( & as you can imagine I’m on my computer A LOT ) while looking down at the computer.

Think about how horrible it is to be looking downward, instead of neutral, all day long.

I personally don’t want to look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame when I’m older so I’m taking preventative measures now.

So. These are my reasons for my laptop stand obsession.

And since we’re on the bizarre topic, let’s also discuss the fact that it’s so chic & creates more space, K? Really though, you can’t be surprised the laptop looks cuter on its stand? My poor laptop looks way cooler on a pretty, silver stand than on my desk.

It just looks legit, you know?

HERE ARE SOME BENEFITS THAT I FOUND ONLINE:

♡ Raises notebook screen height to eye level for better ergonomics.

♡ Tilt design brings screen closer & improves airflow around laptop.

♡ Cable organizer behind routes wires neatly.

♡ Keeps neck neutral.

♡ Transforms your laptop into a comfortable work station.

♡ Helps prevent carpal tunnel & posture problems.

{ more reasons why a laptop can be a big pain in the neck here }

♡ Blue Light Glasses

These glasses are everything. Don’t make fun of them. Be Well By Kelly recommended them to me & they’re life-changing. She asked me “what is in your life that is stressing you out?” For me, it was that I’m constantly on electronics. Like always…even in bed ( but I’m waaaaay better now ). In fact, I’m so specific about my nighttime routine & unwinding that I hardly ever go on my computer in bed anymore.

Anyway, what they do is block out all the blue light from computer screens, phone screens, or any screen. If you’re a blogger or on your computer at night a lot, these are perfect for you. Blocking out the blue light kind of tells your eyes & brain that it’s time to shut down for the night.

Phew. That was a lot. Please let me know what you love, what you hate, & what you keep going back to for ‘back to school’ / ‘office/work supplies’. Be sure to stalk my Amazon page full of all my favorites.

x, lauryn

+ if you want to up your productivity read all about time batching here.

++ scope how to set up a blogger’s desk.

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